One approach to metering and depositing of a food product, such as shredded cheese, in a tray is to shred the cheese in-line. This entails providing a whole or semi-whole block of cheese and shredding it into smaller pieces in-line while the process is running. However, this approach can be disadvantageous due to changing volumes of cheese over time when attempting to deposit the freshly shredded cheese into a tray or container and, in particular, a tray or container having multiple compartments. This can be due to the low bulk density value (which is defined as the mass/volume) of the product immediately after shredding, where the cheese shreds tend to retain their initial shape, i.e., length and width, just after shredding. However, over time, the newly shredded cheese can become more dense, which can result in the newly shredded cheese shrinking in size, i.e., having a smaller length and width. Therefore, if a newly shredded cheese product is relatively immediately deposited into a compartment of a package, over time what appeared to be a full cell can later appear to be only a partially filled cell due to the shrinking volume of the cheese.
Additionally, as the cheese block is shredded in-line, debris can fall from the cheese block or shredder into the process line such that the falling debris can contaminate the sealing surfaces of the tray lip or flange. When sealing the tray, the debris can interfere with forming a tight seal, such that leaking seals in the tray can result. Other issues can also arise, such as clogging of the shredders, which can cause a delay in shredding the cheese and consequently can cause process delays. The temperature of the cheese can vary, thus resulting in varying shred lengths due to the stiffness of the cheese, which can cause undesirable variations in the shredding quality. When the cheese is shredded it can have an arm press down on the opposite end of the cheese from the shredded end. The pressure provided by this arm can have different results based on the stiffness of the cheese. Thus, the in-line shredding system can exhibit poor control of the shredded cheese, resulting in inaccurate portion sizes. Additionally, the direct coupling of the shredding and assembly process can lead to assembly line inefficiencies. It can be challenging to shred small portion sizes, such as the cheese shreds, at the line speed because the fast line speeds can limit how efficiently the cheese block can be shredded. As the incoming cheese varies, the direct-coupled shredding process needs to be adjusted to compensate for that variation; those ongoing adjustments can be a continual source of line inefficiencies.
Transporting and depositing a plurality of products into a package can also be performed by transporting the products via a conveyor system into a container at the end of the conveyor. Where larger sized articles are being transferred to a tray or container, the items can easily be counted to determine the appropriate number of items needed per package. Where the articles are smaller in size and cannot be easily counted when transported on a conveyor, transferring a generally predetermined amount of the smaller sized articles becomes challenging, especially when the process is continuous or generally continuous in high speed commercial operations. Additionally, commercially available equipment can be physically too large for transporting and measuring small, numerous particles, and the equipment can have difficulties depositing small amounts of particles, such as less than about 1.5 oz., into a tray or package. In one approach, the container is stopped at the end of a conveyor to accurately collect the desired amount that has either been pre-measured prior to grouping the articles onto the conveyor, or has been weighed in the collection container after collection where the collection container can be equipped with a weighing/measuring device. In instances where the line or container is not stopped to collect the items, then the articles are dumped into the containers from the end of the conveyor line until the containers appear full or for a set time, without regard for the actual amount transferred. This can result in the containers having varying amounts of articles from container to container since the articles are being collected into the container without any way to control the weight or amount collected.